This Week in the Library (or rather, last week)

Whew! I made it.  We celebrated Grandparents' Day on Friday with a program and a LOT of visitors to the school.  That means that this week was crazy busy getting the building ready (think spring cleaning on a big time scale).

Pre-K
Last week we read Mr. Wiggle's Book to learn how to take care of the library books we were checking out that day.  This week I continued with a library theme.  After our story-time song we read Book, Book, Book by Deborah Bruss.  The children had fun making the animal noises.  After we read the book we go back through to see how it was that the bullfrog had already "readit, readit, readit."

For our game I had laminated 10 different colored book die cuts and put magnets on the back.  I put them on the white board.  As we sang the song, the student that was named would come up and pick out a book and take it to their seat.  I would have the kids say what color was taken and then how many books were left.

10 Books in the Library
10 little books in the library,
10 little books as great as can be,
Along comes _________ to check one out.
Now we have ________ books in the library.

Since we have been talking about returning our library books, of course, we have to return these books as well.

We have 0 books in the library
We need more so we can read
Along comes __________
to bring his/hers back
Now we have_______ books in the library

I feel bad that I can't credit where some of these songs have come from, especially as a librarian that expects her students to cite their sources!  When I first was gathering my materials I had no idea that I would someday be blogging about it, so I didn't keep track.  With this song, I'm pretty sure I made up the returning books part, but it's been so long ago, I'm not certain.

We only had time for one more story before picking out books, so I read A Library Book for Bear by Bonny Becker.

1st Grade
Poor kids.  We did the NWEA MAP familiarization test in preparation for testing that starts next week.  This year we only have 2 sections of 1st grade.  In my first class we had a fire drill (very exciting - they did fantastic especially since I didn't tell them it was coming).  Because of the interruption several didn't finish it, but they get the main concept.

2nd Grade
We continued with our Word project.  This week we changed the font and printed our document.

3rd Grade
They also continued with their Word project.  The focus this week was on how to insert pictures.

4th Grade
I am doing our version of the Monster project.  I call it Make My Monster.  We start by having the students create a monster in KidPix and print it.  We discussed that they will have to write a description of their monster for a student in the other 4th grade class to recreate, so make sure that what they are drawing is describable.  I had hoped that we could connect with another school to exchange descriptions, but I waited too long to get something lined up.  I may do the project again later in the year now that we have practiced our descriptive writing.  I just like to do my project around Halloween and have them displayed in the halls when all the parents are in volunteering at parties.

5th Grade
Trust me, it's coming...They just deserve more than I have time to write about.

So What's the Deal with Pre-K

I haven't talked much about this group yet.  We have a very, VERY large pre-k department for the size of our school.  There are 7 classes of 10 kids.  Two classes are 3 days a week, but the others are 5 days a week.  They are all a full day program.  For us that means 8:25-3:05.

Right now I am seeing the students for 30 minutes.  We start with a story-time song that I stole from the internet somewhere.  My version goes like this:
If you're ready for a story clap your hands (repeat)
If you're ready for story, if you're ready for a story, if you're ready for a story clap your hands.

Other verses - jump up high (we say "wheee" as we jump), turn around (just once), do all three.  The final verse:
If you're ready for a story take a seat.
If you're ready for a story stay in your seat.
If you're ready for a story, make your hands all nice and neat,
If you're ready for a story, stay in your seat.

Originally each line was "take a seat," but one year I had a group of kids that would jump up so they could sit back down.  It sounds kind of cute thinking about it now, but at the time it drove me bonkers.  Probably because they would get so silly it was hard to get them to focus again.

Then I read a story.  I usually have some kind of a theme that ties things together.  To break things up we will play a game, do a finger rhyme, or get up and dance and sing.  We follow that up with another story.  Depending on the length of the various books and activities, I may have more that we do.  We end with another song that I stole from somewhere a long time ago.
Touch your nose, touch your chin,
That's the way this game begins,
Touch your eyes, touch your knees
Now pretend you are going to sneeze (ah-choo).
Touch your elbows where they bend
Now jump up and whisper
The end.

If anyone knows where I may have stolen these songs from please leave a comment and I will edit accordingly.

Last week we started doing book checkout.  With this group they select one book that is checked out to their teacher and stays in the classroom.  For now, I select about 30 books and put them on the tables for the students to choose from.  The books are usually selected from my book returns to save time.  Later on I teach them how to use shelf markers, but not yet!  I have a parent volunteer (my mom - she's a parent) that does my shelving.  I think she would quit if I let pre-k loose on the shelves at this point.

In a few weeks we will be extending our time to 45 minutes and it will include using the computers.  One year I did start with the full 45 minutes including computers from the first week of school.  I don't do that now!  They need to get a little more in the swing of school and a little more self-sufficient before I'm ready to tackle computers with them.  They are pretty savvy when it comes to mobile devices, but mice throw them for a loop.  They are also used to having a parent or someone around that can help them in they run into a problem.  They are not used to having to wait their turn while I am helping 9 other students.

Catching Up

I'm a little behind in my posts, but considering I've almost posted as much in a couple of weeks as I have for the life-time of the blog, I'm not that behind!

Last week for most of my classes was a continuation of the pirate theme.

Kindergarten - I introduced using a mouse.  It is kind of funny how mouse skills are something that our incoming students don't have.  It used to be rare for me to have a student that didn't know how to use a mouse.  Now with all of the touch screens, I find most of the incoming kindergartners don't know how to use a mouse.  This is something that I teach in our prekindergarten program, so those students are usually ready to go.  We used the Mouse and Pointer exercises from ABCmouse.com.  I showed the students how to hold a mouse and we previewed just the beginning of the game on the projector in the library side of my space.  I had the computers ready to go to the point that they only needed to chose if they were left or right handed (I did review for the students those that were left handed).  When they finished the tutorial, they could play other games on ABCmouse.  While they were working (and in between reopening closed browsers and showing them how to maximize their windows) I checked in the library books.  I had students that were able to check out a book (they had returned their previous book) check out and then go back to the computers until our time was up. 

1st Grade - Last week some students were sad that they didn't have time to go to all of the centers they wanted.  To give more time for pirate fun, I did a short pirate themed read aloud and had the same centers out as last week.

2nd Grade - We started a project using Word 2013.  We started with a discussion on how computers can't do anything unless someone has programmed the computer.  We call these programs, software or apps.  Then I go old school on them and explain if I wanted to have a nice polished looking report when I was their age, I had to use a typewriter with only 2 fonts, no colors or different sizes.  Now they can use a word processor and have fun fonts, colors, and pictures!  I have a list of sentences for the students to fill in about things that they like or didn't like.  I walked them through opening Word, starting their writing and saving their work.

3rd Grade - They were to work on their pirate stories.  Once they had a paragraph they could change the font.

4th Grade - They continued their Pirate Amazing Race activity.  Winning teams were given an eraser with a map of the world on it (an Oriental Trading Company product).  I don't usually give many prizes to avoid the "what do we get" mentality.  I did have one student ask what the other students would win.  My favorite response is, "Did you enjoy the activity?  Did you practice using library resources?  Would you have rather done a worksheet?  Wonderful, you all won not having to do a worksheet and I won because I don't have to grade anything!"

5th Grade - You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned what I have been doing with the fifth graders.  I am experimenting with them by following a genius hour type of arrangement.  I have a lot to share on that topic and will be writing a blog post soon about how the process has been going so far.

Pre-K - I also haven't been posting what I have been doing with them.  Maybe soon.  I'm just impressed that I've kept up this much!

More Talk Like a Pirate Day

4th Grade

I had so much fun with this activity, and I think the kids did as well.  I found a pirate themed task card set on using reference sources on Teachers Pay Teachers by Teaches Third in Georgia. 

I was going to have the students do the task cards, but I wasn't sure how I would have them go about doing it.  My thought was to have the cards throughout the library.  Students would find them and answer the questions.  I wasn't really happy with that, but then I remembered that I had previously purchased a library game called the Amazing Race.  Just like the TV show the kids have to complete various challenges before moving on and getting a new challenge.  I found that the challenges in the game didn't work well with the resources we have in the library, so I never used it.  I decided to merge the two concepts. Unfortunately this idea came to me an hour before the classes were to arrive. 

I quickly got to work modifying my original plan.  I used the task cards as is, but divided them into four groups.  Luckily there were 4 questions for each reference source.  I divided the cards so that each group would have to answer a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, and online question (the set does come with map questions, but I decided not to use those as we haven't spent time working with maps yet).  Borrowing an idea from The Amazing Race game, I had the students work together to create some things.  I mixed up the order for the different groups so they weren't all trying to use the same resource at once.  The challenges that involved making something were put in between the task cards. Click here for the Google Doc of the challenges I created.

When the classes arrived, I announced that I was a Pirate Captain, but all my crew had to walk the plank.  I was holding auditions for a new crew.  I randomly divided them into four groups.  At each table there was a bucket of supplies.  The buckets held 10 popsicle sticks, 10 strings of yarn about 2' long, glue, scissors, markers, colored pencils and paper.  They were given a passport to keep track of their challenges.  The master for this came from the Amazing Race game due to the last minute change-up.  In the future I would probably either remake the passport (and remove the picture of an airplane) or create some type of a treasure map that they use. 

The students were given a few minutes to see what supplies they had and to come up with a team name.  When they reported their team name to me, they were given their first challenge.  After each challenge, they had to report back to me with all of their team.  They either turned in their answer or showed what they made.  I gave the a sticker for their passport and their next challenge.  We didn't finish the game, so it will carry over into next week.  They are given 1 point for each correct answer (I did not check their answers as they turned them in).  Bonus points were given for the most creative raft, rope, flag.  First place finisher received 4 points, second place 3 points, and so on. 

Things I learned

Have a set of cards for each class rather than sharing.  Since we didn't finish in once class period, I had to make notes of which task each group still needed to do since I couldn't just put their remaining tasks in their bucket.  Which leads me to.....

Keep the standard supplies separate from each teams "consumables."  My fourth grade classes are back to back.  It was a little challenging to reset the game for the next class.  I did pause the game with 15 minutes left so they could check out.  I used that time to start resetting, but as I was explaining the game to the next class; I was talking while distributing supplies.

Rules!  I had one group in the first class that sailed through and finished with plenty of time for checkout.  For the dictionary and thesaurus cards, they were able to answer the questions without looking anything up.  That pretty much defeats the purpose of the game which is to use reference sources.  For the second group I added that they had to include the page number where the information came from; they couldn't just answer the question. 

What about a tie!  There was a tie in one of the classes.  As a tie breaker, the groups had to write and perform a sea chantey.  As luck would have it, our music teacher had stopped in so she helped judge the competition.  

Disclaimer

You may look at this and think how on earth could you possibly do this in one or even two library sessions.  I am very lucky and see my kids for double the amount of the other specials teachers. That means for 2nd-5th grade I see them for 50 minutes.  K-1st grade is 40 minutes.  PreK follows their own rules.  For now I see them for 30 minutes.  When we start using the computer lab (after fall MAP testing) it will be 45 minutes.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

I used to post a calendar with all the crazy holidays on it.  I had a lot of fun, but a few years ago I lost my hallway spot (lesson learned - don't wait too long to put up your bulletin boards if they are in a shared area!)  Anyway, one of my favorite holidays for obvious reasons, was Talk Like a Pirate Day.  This year it snuck up on me and I had all of my lesson plans worked out for the week, but once I realized my oversight I quickly switched things up a little bit.  I really wished I would have taken some pictures, but the kids kept me hopping.

Kindergarten

In kindergarten we are still practicing with our shelf markers and the whole check out system. Because of that, I haven't started centers with them yet.

We read How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long.  Before letting the students loose on the stacks we reviewed using shelf markers and did the Shelf Marker Bookie Lookie.  Since I work alone, I do self-checkout.  At this point my kinders aren't ready for that, so I limit them to only checking out from the picture book section which is near the check out computer.  This allows me to help out both with finding a book and checking it out.  After they are done checking out I gave them the choice of drawing their own treasure map or coloring in a treasure map.  Both of which I found online for free.  I'll have to come back and put the links to the 2 printables.  Of course, reading their book or looking at magazines is almost always a choice for after checkout.

1st Grade

We read How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long also.  Since we have very few new students in the 1st grade, they were familiar with self-checkout and centers (and we have been using them since the very beginning of the school year).   I still keep a close eye on the circulation computer, but I can roam a bit more.  After the story, students were able to check out and then chose a center to go to. 

Keyboard Center:  I have four keyboards with the cords cut off.  At this point they can "type" the alphabet, friends and family names, spelling words, or I have cards on various themes.  I had pirate themed words for them to use. 

Listening Center:  I have 4 iPads that I use in the listening center. I have either purchased or created QR codes that link to youtube videos (via safeshare.tv) of books being read.  Of course, I found pirate stories for this center.

Roll and Color: For this center, the students rolled the die and colored in the named item on the sheet.  This was a free download from Teachers Pay Teachers created by Schoolhouse Talk.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pirate-Themed-Roll-and-Color-Pages-880146

A Parrot for a Pirate:  This was another free center created by Activity Tailor on Teachers Pay Teachers.  The sheet has 6 parrots.  Each parrot is assigned a number from 1-6 and there are 5 squares below each one.  The students take turn rolling the dice and coloring in one of the squares.  When all 5 are colored in that parrot is the winner.

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Parrot-for-a-Pirate-a-FREE-open-ended-worksheet-activity-1439742

2nd Grade

I didn't have a read aloud for this group.  Every once in awhile, usually when there is a focus that I want to highlight, we will do a center rotation.  I don't have a story or lesson, instead I divide the time up into 4 chunks and the students rotate between 4 centers.  I used the same centers as first grade with one exception.  Roll and Color was replaced by book checkout and a Mimio game.  I had originally wanted to do an alphabetizing Mimio game, but I didn't get it done in time (at least to my liking).  Instead I did a word search utilizing ABCya's Word Search Creator.  I used pirate words from the keyboard center.  I really like that you can reset the game (scramble the letters) without having to retype the words. 

3rd Grade

I had planned on starting a review/introduction to Microsoft Word.  Our students used it some last year, but we did receive new computers with Windows 8.1 in the lab, so things looked a little different to begin with, and a lot of time passed since they last used it.  Instead of doing the writing prompt I had originally picked out, they were asked to write about being a pirate.  I gave them copies of a pirate name generator (with a few tweaks - I replaced bloody and wench as options).  They could use that to find their pirate name or make up a name of their own.  This week, they just worked on finding Word and getting started. 

Oops...I did it again!

I keep coming back to the blog thinking that I will actually be updating regularly.  I mentally write blog posts, but usually at times I can't actually write and post them.  When I do have the availability to blog I either procrastinate (big problem for me in a lot of instances) or I beat myself up for not being perfect.  I have several blog posts that I've started but never published because of this.  I worry that because I'm an educator my spelling and grammar has to be perfect.  I don't want to get nasty comments mocking me for making mistakes like I've seen elsewhere on the internet.  But that is something I have to get over.  I am human.  I make mistakes, even when I proof read. 

So this is another fresh start.  I am almost finished with my masters in education with an emphasis on educational technology.  All along I have been planning on blogging about how my classes have impacted my teaching, but teaching, parenting, taking classes, and having something of a personal life came first.  This semester I am doing my capstone project and then I am DONE!  As I work on that project, I want to consistently blog about the project and what is going on in my classroom (the library and computer lab). 

More reviews

I'm not getting as much reading in as I had hoped due to plumbing malfunctions at home.  But since I can't really help fix what's wrong, I might as well get back to the book review pile.

The Best Friend Battle by Lindsay Eyre
Scholastic lists this book as for 2nd-3rd graders.  Sylvie is back in town after a summer vacation to find that her best friend Miranda has made a few new friends while Sylvie was gone.  Unfortunately, Miranda is not only Sylvie's best friend but her only friend and she is worried that she is losing her friend.  Sylvie manages to dig herself into a hole and as time goes on, only manages to make it deeper. Has she gone too far and lost her friend for good?  In some ways Sylvie reminds me of a more grown up Junie B. Jones.  Although her vocabulary is more developed.  I think this will be a good book for those students that are ready for something beyond Junie.

Big Bad Detective Agency by Bruce Hale
I'm a sucker for fractured fairy tales of which this one is.  Someone has vandalized the three not so little pigs and everyone blames the Big Bad Wolf who prefers to be called by his rightful name Wolfgang.  Together with Ferkel, littlest brother to the afore mentioned pigs, Wolfgang needs to clear his name by nightfall or be imprisoned for the crime.  Ferkel and Wolfgang visit the various suspects in Fairylandia: Hansel & Gretel, Goldilocks, even Cinderella among others.  Of course in the end the Wolf and Ferkel solve the crime.  The book ends with a very possible series to come. 

This is a cute book that students will probably find humorous and enjoy reading.

Beneath by Roland Smith
I love Roland Smith.  I have enjoyed every book of his that I've read, and he is one of the author's I feel confident in recommending to my students without hesitation.  Beneath is no exception.  It is an action adventure novel that ends with a promise of a sequel.  Pat and Coop are the ordinary children of extraordinary parents.  Primarily raised by nannies while young, and then left to their own devices as they got older.  Coop leaves home after an argument with his parents about college.  After not hearing from him for a year, suddenly Pat starts receiving voice recordings from his brother.  When he stops receiving the recordings he goes off to search for him.  All he has to go by is a post office number in New York City.  Pat is drawn into a world that exists below the streets of New York City in a mission to rescue his brother. 

I would recommend this to both girls and boys that like action and adventure with a little mystery thrown in. 

Masterpiece by Elise Broach
Masterpiece brings me back to the hidden life that goes on underground and in walls, but instead of mice, this world is populated by beetles.  In this story, Marvin the beetle and his family live under the sink in the apartment of the Pompadays.  Marvin makes friends with James the human boy that lives in the apartment with his mother, stepfather, and baby half-brother.  His parents are too busy with work to be concerned about Marvin except for when he might be useful in wooing clients.  After a dismal birthday party for James when all of the guests are children of potential clients for his mother, James goes to bed leaving out the pen and ink set his father had given him for his birthday.  The beetles, feeling bad for the way James' birthday went, have Marvin leave a buffalo nickel in James' bedroom for him to find in the morning.  In the process Marvin discovers the open bottle of ink and draws a picture of the scene outside the window for an additional present for the human boy.  James discovers Marvin and they become friends, but his mother discovers the drawing and believes James to be the talented artist.  In a series of twists, James and Marvin become embroiled in a scheme to catch art thieves.